By Chance

Chapter 14 - The engagement party

„Feel free to grab anything you want,” Tessa assured the girls before opening the door to her walk-in closet. Tonight was finally the night to celebrate Perrie and Zayn’s engagement, so Perrie, Sophia and Eleanor were all gathered in Tessa’s room to get ready for the party. „Oh my god! This is heaven,” Sophia squealed while both Perrie and Eleanor just stood there speechless. „Damn girl! It forgot how much clothes you owned,” Perrie stated, while Eleanor was already inspecting the closet. „How will I ever choose?” She said with already five dresses in her hands. There girls were thrilled and soon everybody was preoccupied with finding the perfect dress for tonight's party. After more than half an hour of dress-hunting all of the girls had finally found their favourite dress. Perrie was wearing a bright purple one - matching her hair, while both Sophia and Eleanor picked white. Tessa had chosen her eternal backup, which was a simple, black, mid-thigh long dress with thin straps. „Turn this one up,” Eleanor screamed when Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Drunk in Love started playing on the radio. Tessa happily did as she was told and continued painting her nails a deep red. Eleanor was already doing her makeup, but Perrie and Sophia immediately started to sing along and dance as well. Soon Tessa’s room had turned into the set of a music video and all of the girls were showing their moves. Tessa felt great - her friends were amazing and she just really needed a night without worrying, and she was almost certain this would be tonight. The girls were soon interrupted by Niall, who informed them that the first guests had already arrived, while laughing at their silly dance moves.  The stress erupted and suddenly the girls rushed to put on their makeup. Tessa applied a simple makeup plus she added liquid eyeliner and she let her platinum blond hair hung loosely down her bare bag. She hoped to impress Harry, but pushed the thought away - that was silly since he was just a friend. She then grabbed her six inch black pumps and headed down the stairs.

They girls had gathered around the kitchen table with several of their friends and toasted in bubbly champagne. They had already greeted the guests, whom to Tessa's surprise mainly consisted of celebrities - so now they were enjoying the evening and celebrating Perrie and Zayns love. „Let’s do another round of shots,” Jesy yelled and of course the rest of her bandmates chipped in. The vodka bottle was passed around and when mixed with a bit of lemonade, Tessa couldn’t taste a thing. The boys had been playing some sort of beer bowling in the garden, and as they joined the crowd in the living room the party truly started. Zayn welcomed them all in a short speech ending with him naming himself DJ Malik and turning the music up to a maximum. This made people start dancing; Cara of course was the first on the dance floor, and the chatter got even louder. The atmosphere was great and Tessa already felt slightly buzzed after a couple of rounds of the drinking game ‘Bus ride’.   „But I don’t want to go on another bus ride,” she whined when Harry finally spotted her in the crowd of people. He enjoyed the sight of her in the black dress that hugged her curves perfectly, and her bare bag made his fingers itch from the lust of touching her. He had been on the losing team of beer bowling and now the intoxication abruptly hit him. And damn Tessa looked fine tonight.

After a while of gathering courage Harry finally headed towards Tessa. He snuck up behind her and felt her entire body freeze at his touch, but she immediately relaxed when she recognized him. „Hazza! Kylie and Kendall are making me go on another bus ride, and I really really don’t want to go,” she whimpered and mumbled something about her earlier believes about them being ‘good girls’ defiantly had vanished, while both Kylie and Kendall was laughing - also clearly affected of the alcohol. „Sorry girls, but I have to steal her away for a bit - there’s someone I promised her to meet,” Harry explained and put his arm around Tessa waist before helping her up. They both clearly felt the electricity running through their bodies. „You look absolutely stunning tonight Tess,” Harry whispered in her ear as he led the way towards the living room. „Well thank you so much kind sir, you look quite handsome yourself,” she giggled and stared into his emerald eyes. „So who am I meeting?” Tessa asked curiously. „I guess that must be me,” the guy next to her answered. It took her some time to gather her thoughts and understand who actually stood right before her - an English guy - a redheaded guy. „Oh my god! You are Ed Sheeran!” She squealed and started jumping up and down of excitement. „Tessa - Ed. Ed this is Tessa, who normally doesn’t fan-girl this much,” Harry said laughing. „How embarrassing - I’m so sorry, I’m just a huge fan of yours,” she explained. Harry once again put his arm around her waist and pulled her closer, which made Ed wiggle his eyebrows at him. Drunken Harry didn’t care - he had this need to be near her and that was all that mattered right now. „It’s okay, really! I should be the one fan-girling, since you are all Harold over here talks about,” Ed said and winked at both of them. Tessa felt her cheeks redden and sent Harry a shy smile, she then slowly leaned her head against his shoulder. Tessa suddenly sobered up a bit - but her thoughts were soon distracted, when she remembered something. „Hey Ed, when are you new album coming out? Your tour is so soon - and I know you fans are getting pretty restless”. Harry, despite of his need to be close to Tessa, left her in a deep conversation with Ed to go and get another drink. He knew they would be caught up talking music for now, and he trusted Ed with her - tonight he clearly couldn’t handle some random guy hitting on her, which actually wouldn’t be surprising if it happen, because of her appearance.